Price Tag
by Yellowfur
Summary: Run, Hinata, they're coming for you. They want you.


**Disclaimer: I own none of the cartoons used within.**

**I used quite a few fandoms in this, so if you don't see anyone you know for the first couple of appearances, be patient. You may find someone you like by the end. I think I've got a nice spread here... **

**Toki Wartooth's so cute.**

**I'm almost entirely sure this will only be one chapter. But if you want to see more of this type of thing, avatarjk137's got a similar one with some of the same elements and different characters, due out pretty soon.**

**--**

She ran down the street, the cold night air making her breathing hard and painful. Wide white eyes ticked back and forth, looking for a place to hide. She ran alongside a cement wall that would be gray if it weren't covered in posters – a menagerie of white and yellow, pictures, numbers, and names. Some were slashed out or half-ripped, others were scribbled on. She noticed her name on one – Hinata Hyuuga for one million, Byakugan eyes, dead or alive. She would have tried to rip it off the wall for her own safety, but that would be futile, since her poster was widespread in the area. Besides, she was running for her life.

Hinata ducked behind a wall when a purple van screeched around the corner behind her. It nearly hit a police car that was beaten up nearly beyond recognition. The car honked in return and turned on its lights, the blinking not as bright as most simply from the dirt covering the lights. The van stopped.

Now she was in some half-finished construction area, walking between a brick wall and a chain-link fence. She was walking, having run so long that she felt as if she'd forgotten what it felt like to not be out of breath.

Right before she popped out again into the other street, she tensed up a bit, and strained. It was a familiar strain, almost unnoticeable after doing it for most of her life. On the other side of the building, she could see, there was someone coming. She had noticed a little too late –

"Hi," It was a young man, in jeans and a white t-shirt. His black hair was disheveled beyond hope of a brush fixing anything, and his large eyes looked were practically lined in black, the bags were so dark. He was barefoot. Despite all this, he seemed calm enough.

Hinata didn't say anything. She was unable to.

"There are some police officers looking for you."

She swallowed.

"You should get going, but wait a minute and let them pass in their car, because they're not real police officers."

She fiddled with the hem of her oversized hoodie.

"Just thought I should warn you about that."

Fiddle… fiddle…

"You're rude! Say thank you!"

"I-I'm sorry… thanks…"

He turned to look behind him. "One million sure is a lot for one person. What makes you so special?" His tone wasn't insulting, oddly enough, just curious. "I think they're gone." He stepped out of the way. "You probably should go, or they'll find you and kill you, and bring your head to the government, and get a big check, and then probably spend it on drugs and prostitutes. You probably know all that, though."

Hinata murmured another thanks, and walked past him onto the street. A few stores were open – a Laundromat, a tattoo parlor, a convenience store, and at the end of the street, a nightclub. She shied away when there were other people on the street, three others under a streetlight, talking.

The tired-looking boy behind her must have noticed this: "Those guys sure are young. They probably don't know who you are, and even if they do, they probably aren't real threats, or at least nothing you can't outrun. Just walk like you belong here and don't look at them. My name is Ryuzaki. Your name is all over the place! It's like we've been formally introduced."

She started walking.

"Very rude, indeed!"

Her face turned red. She would have shot him a dirty look, but why risk attracting anymore attention? Besides, she could faintly hear him walking away.

Hinata padded past a few dark windows, an abandoned store juxtaposed next to a trendy clothes shop. She could feel herself still shaking slightly. All she had to do was stay safe until morning, and then she would be able to meet up with her sister and find some sort of map or some way out of this godforsaken city.

She had heard stories from friends on the wall about bounty hunters. This city's general population was poor, but the artillery business was booming, meaning that there were all sorts of bounty hunters here – rich and successful ones that may even have their own business for it with little drones doing the dirty work, undercover ones posing as anything you could think of (making it nearly impossible to tell the difference between a friend and foe), poor and desperate ones – usually junkies – running around with baseball bats and dilated pupils. She had heard tons of stories, some from friends that had been running for years. This was her first week with a number, and people had caught on. One million was not a quiet number.

A huge majority of bounties were killed before being exchanged. It's just easier that way.

"Hey!" One of the guys from across the street approached her. Hinata froze. But lucky her, Ryuzaki was right. He was just a kid. "Do you have a quarter?"

She reached in her pocket and handed him a quarter, keeping her head down so her dark, blueish hair hung in her face and covered her eyes. Twenty-five cents wasn't that much to spare, since she actually had a fair bit of money with her; she grabbed all the cash she had on hand before running after her apartment was broken into. It certainly wasn't a million dollars though, so it wouldn't be of much help until she figured out what she wanted to do.

"Wow! You actually gave me a quarter! That's never happened before!" He hesitated. "Don't suppose you have any more to spare?"

She didn't think twice before handing him a couple more quarters. He was only a kid, and she had no idea what kind of life kids usually had here. She and her sister were living together in the city, with jobs and an apartment and even okay furniture, but since their posters went up, friends were hiding Hanabi for the time being (too much to ask that they hide one more).

"You rock! Everyone around here is so _Nyehhh I'm trying to make a liiiiviiing_. You're cool. What's your name? I'm Eddy." He pointed across the street, "That's Double D and Ed." He must have forgotten everything he knew in school about stranger danger.

Hinata smiled at him.

Bad mistake.

His mouth dropped. "Holy…" After a pause, he giggled nervously, then said, "Can… can you just stand? Like right here? Please?"

Hinata stood, paralyzed by fear. _You had to show him your eyes. _She snapped out of her trance when something snapped at her feet. She yelped at the sting and ran away, as Eddy threw something else at her.

"HEY!" He ran after her. The others followed. "I SAID PLEASE!" He brandished his gun, filled with little red paintballs.

She turned the corner, past the nightclub. She had never been there. Hanabi had once and said it was stupid and immature, just like what Hanabi said about basically everything and everyone. Little red pops chased Hinata. Three people were shooting at her. At least they had crappy aim. And at least it was only paintballs.

But right around the corner was the familiar purple van. She was looking right into the headlights.

She had first noticed the purple van sitting outside her apartment on the first day her poster went up. She had noticed the van _before _she heard about the poster.

Two girls popped out of the side of the purple van. One with bright pink hair, the other with bright purple.

Hinata had seen their advertisement in the paper – playing music, walking dogs, and bounty hunting (multi-talented!). The purple-haired one, Yumi, said, "Paintball guns. That's a little pathetic, isn't it?" She tapped her semi-automatic pistol against her thigh, her other hand on her hip. The gun was dark blue. And had a little skull sticker on the top.

"You're a little pathetic!!" Eddy snapped. "And these hurt, by the way."

"This is true, and besides, I'm working on a new model," said Double D, a gangly boy with a gap tooth and black hat. "It is just a prototype for the time being, however."

"Glad to hear it, Eds. In the meantime, you may want to leave bounty hunting for the big kids, you know?" Ami's smile was hatefully cute. "You could get hurt." Her gun had a little flower sticker on the top.

"This is easier than shooting lumps in coffee!" Ed said. "'Cause I never see any lumps in coffee. And my mom was drinking it. And then it's time to play outside."

Yumi nodded to him. "Your input is noted." She looked around. "Where did this week's takeout bill go?!"

Hinata had long since taken cover inside the nightclub. She briefly dwelled on how convenient it was that the lighting was horrible and there were tons of people. The bass of the DJ's music seemed to vibrate her liver. She was never one to drink alcohol, since she could take her liquor about as well as she predicted a ten year old could, but she made her shaky, timid way to the bar anyway.

How could people handle being pursued for years?! This couldn't have been more than five days after the first signs people were interested in her head and Hinata felt she was dangerously close to a heart attack! She considered it lucky enough that her heart didn't explode when she saw Ami and Yumi climb into her apartment that evening through the window they broke. She lived on the third floor! It was like she was in some bad horror movie, watching herself grab the emergency cash stash in the dusty old decorative kimono in her apartment before running out the door, the elevator door closing just in time. Hinata prayed it would end like a cheesy movie too, at least to the point that she _lives_.

She looked across the bar to see Ami enter the nightclub and try to see through the crowd – but she was no Hinata. She estimated the best direction to go and began plowing through the people, not too far from her target.

Hinata swallowed, panicked, looked around. Maybe a back door…

"You lookin' for something?" A guy at the bar who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere asked her. Red dreadlocks and facial piercings; what a weird look. A beer in hand doubled as an accessory.

"Yeah… is there… a back door or…?" She trailed off.

"That girl who just came in's a bounty hunter. You're on that wall thing." He had a thick Midwestern accent. "We're playing here. You want to take cover backstage or somethin'?" He gave her an awfully crooked smile.

Time for a little on-the-spot evaluation. There was no reason whatsoever that this guy would have for helping her, other than the goodness of his heart (ha!), and a lot of reasons for _not_ helping her. There were more reasons yet why she, as a young and scared woman on her own, should pass on going into a dark enclosed space with a bunch of men (especially when at least one had alcohol). But still, what did she have to lose. She could sit out here and wait for other bounty hunters to blow her brains out.

--

Hinata sat by herself on a little fold-up chair. Her hands clutched the cushion under her. She really didn't care for black death scary aaaagh metal. There was a man in a suit who had gone outside after answering a cell phone call and hadn't come back in for ten minutes.

She got up and figured she would do something to keep her mind off her current scenario. Oh, a dressing room with the door open. A vanity with scary zombie makeup. She peeked behind a curtain. A variety of shiny weapons, many of them medieval, many more sharp, and all of them dangerous. An on the ground, a small catalog of wanted posters. It was somewhat crooked, as if someone had organized it and then someone else dropped it. Her cover was on top. There was a nice red check on it.

She stepped back from the curtain. Hinata spotted the door and was going to make a break for it.

But someone had joined her. "Oh! Yous that girl that Pickle sends in! I's Toki!" He smiled at her. Gray makeup and long metalhead hair clashed with a wide, genuine smile.

"I'm… Hinata…" She began backing up.

He began babbling with a Scandinavian accent Hinata wasn't familiar with about how the band was taking a break and he came back here to touch up his zombie makeup and get away from some other guy who kept saying he was "so dildos". Hinata had just about made it to the door to leave…

"Heyyyy! Wheres you going?!"

"I-I-I have to-"

The door opened. Ryuzaki stepped in.

"_Heyyyy! _**You **can't comes in here!!" Now Toki looked angry.

Ryuzaki raised his right pointer finger and shook it. "No. Mine." Toki continued to protest, but Ryuzaki's next quick move was to stick his thumb out and tilt his finger down so his fingers looked like a gun. "BANG!"

"AGH!" Toki covered his head.

Ryuzaki grabbed Hinata's sleeve, being careful not to touch her hand and led her out the door.

They were back into the cold night, in a fenced-in concrete space probably meant for whoever was playing at the club to drink and smoke if they didn't feel like doing it inside. Hinata felt fortunate again that no one was outside – maybe these little things would make up for being surrounded by people who saw little price tags attached to her eyeballs.

Ryuzaki let her go and stopped for a minute. He slouched and touched his thumb to his lip, seeming to ponder the situation. "Go over that fence. You'll be in a construction site. There are tons here, but this one is small. Go through it. There's a building there, an old art studio with nothing inside. Enter it, stay quiet and hidden, I'm sure there's somewhere you can hide."

"Thank you!"

The construction site was pretty small, with some cliché items that signaled… well, a construction site, such as large white pipes and random metal objects and beams.

"Hey, hey, whoa now!" A girl's voice shouted. "What are you doing in a construction site at night? Don't you know that's dangerous?" The redheaded girl had a police officer's outfit, complete with a badge and a smirk.

"Yeah," one of her companions, a blonde guy with a cigarette agreed. "It's not safe for pretty girls to be running around here."

"I think you'd better come with us!" The redhead took out a pair of handcuffs.

"And you better not try any funny business! We're high-ranking officers!" Her last companion, a guy with a ridiculously long nose and another police officer getup, waggled a finger in warning at her. "Back at our station, they send us out for their worst cases because they know we can handle it! We're well-known! And we have four large dogs. They aced their training courses!!"

The redhead had a frozen Hinata's hands locked with a couple of quick movements. She began dragging her back out of the construction site. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

The blonde continued for her. "Don't do anything all super-powered and crazy and whatnot. You must be on that wall for a reason."

It was the edge of the construction site. Their police car came into view. There was another guy, a green-haired man, napping shotgun. Hinata, who had been too stunned from her sheer bad luck to speak, suddenly whimpered and dragged her feet. The police car was a threat. It was in view. Childish primal instincts kicked in. Do not reach the car. Do not touch it! Last stop!

"Hey! Don't try to put up a fight! Come on... for- Sanji, help me out here!!"

Sanji stomped out his cigarette but other than that made no move to help. "What do you want me to do, my dear?"

"I can help!!"

"No, Usopp, you can't, you suck at this. Go get Zoro!"

Sanji turned around with the intent to shout at the guy at the car, but was not in fact the force that woke him up. His head snapped up from a loud horn and bright headlights.

Once again, Ami and Yumi popped out of the familiar purple van. Ami's dress had a huge wet stain on it. They both looked pissed and toted pistols. Yumi said, "You shitheads again! That one's ours. We've been chasing her all night. Ami chased her into a bar and some drunkard spilled beer all over her. We got attacked by those annoying brats with paintball guns who think they're so high and mighty. And here you come with your little police outfits trick. You think you're _soooo _clever-"

"Oh shut up!!" Nami snapped. "Clever, yeah! Clever enough to make us much richer than you! We must be doing something right, or we'd still be playing minimum wage slackers by day and wannabe bounty hunters by night like you!"

Ami waved her gun about in her angry gestures. "Don't act like you're so high and mighty! Everyone knows how you thought you used to be some kind of cool pirates or something, turned in your own captain and two other members of your crew to start yourself off...! That's just SHALLOW!"

"Don't get into that pedantic speech-making stuff," Sanji lit another cancer stick. "You're in the same business we are."

Yumi shook her head. "Whatever, the point we're really trying to make here is... kind of a roundabout way of saying it but... uh, that's OUR kill! Hinata Hyuuga! WE'RE gonna turn her in!"

"Like fucking hell that chick is yours, you douchebags!" It was the guy Hinata had first met in the bar, trailed by four other men, including Toki. He had a black eye and looked quite angry. He pointed at Hinata. "You... you better be worth this shit!"

Hinata blinked. She remembered his name was Pickles, Toki had said to her before. She would probably find Pickles and Toki funny names, but she was in a pretty bad situation... in case it wasn't clear. Her mind was on other things.

"The Head Worth One Million Dollars," said one of his companions with long black hair and a low, growling voice. "That's a good song title." He didn't really look all that hurt, or if he was he didn't care.

The tall blonde guy in their group smirked. "You has abouts six other songs with titles what basically are the sames." Another one with a Scandinavian accent, he was nursing a bloody lip and holding himself like it hurt to fully stand up straight.

"OKAY, stop, stop!" Yumi waved her hand. "Honestly. I'm really not in the mood for stupid Dethklok bullcrap tonight. You... you're all just... you're all just full of it, I don't even know-"

"Hey, hey, don't get all jealousch and bitchy that we're just _schkilled_, alright?!" the last guy lisped. The blood running down his chin probably didn't make matters better. Hinata caught herself staring and wondered who had happened to them.

"You're not skilled," Sanji snickered. "Everything you touch turns to death."

Usopp nodded eagerly. "It's dumb luck, is what it is!"

"IT WORKS IS WHAT IT IS!" The black-haired guy snarled.

"But not in the long run," Yet another figure approached their circle of shouting. Ryuzaki approached them, his slouching, wan frame illuminated by the headlights that were still on. "I've got a system. You should try getting one. They're good." He paused for a beat. "You're lucky for your manager. I might have killed you in our little scuffle. You're all in such bad shape... no more tequila for you."

Meanwhile, Hinata, trying not to hyperventilate, glanced back at the police car. Zoro had fallen back asleep. Whether or not he'd be a threat to some rival bounty hunting gangs, Hinata figured she'll never know.

Ryuzaki pointed to the blonde guy. "Mr. Skwigelf, your face hurt my foot!" His face was still freakishly calm, almost zombie-like with the black-eyed stare, but his voice was more of a childish whine.

Before his bandmate could reply, Toki said, "Well, I don't likes your systems neither!! You's mean! We get bounty and you steals it!"

"Hey, yeah!" Ami said. "He took it from us. Way back... a while ago. We were chasing her and he took her!"

"MEAN!" Toki insisted.

"I'm not mean, I'm efficient!" Ryuzaki was finally putting in a little more emotion, facial expression and body language and the like, to defend himself. The idea was scary to Hinata, though she wasn't entirely sure why.

"You're all mean!" Another voice! A kid's voice this time, though... Eddy and his Eds again. Eddy was speaking, as seemed to be the norm. "We just want to get involved too, and you keep treating us like we're kids! You're all 'Oh nooo, they're so bratty!', well, have we got news for you!"

"Your parents let you pick out the paddle they're going to spank you with?" Pickles asked.

Yumi laughed.

"NO! The news is... WE'RE going to get that bounty!" He pointed at Hinata.

His finger pointing was the first time in a while people were directly acknowledging Hinata instead of talking about her. She had a feeling so many people wanting her, in their own weird way should somehow be flattering, but it really, really wasn't.

At least five different people laughed.

"I told you they'd laugh," Double D said.

"Well, we're dangerous now!" Eddy looked frustrated. "We're a THREAT!" He stomped his foot. "Stop LAUGHING, I'm armed!" He took out a pistol similar to Ami and Yumi's.

People stopped laughing.

"He raided his daddy's gun collection."

"Awwww."

"That's brutal."

"I'LL SHOW YOU BRUTAL!" Eddy pulled the trigger. It clicked. "Oh. Uh..."

Nami's laugh was the loudest. "Hey kid, guns need bullets. Anyway..." She laughed for a second or two longer, then held her own police-issued gun to Hinata's head. "I. Want. Some. Money."

Hinata gasped.

Pickles swore and threw his weapon - a morningstar - onto the cement.

Ami whined.

Zoro snored.

Ryuzaki cocked his head to the side.

Eddy covered his eyes.

Double D covered Ed's eyes.

Nami shrieked in pain. There was a hook sticking out of her now bloodied shoulder. "WHAT THE FFFFF, WHO DID THAT?" She dropped the gun. The hook was attached to a cord, which was ripped out of her shoulder. She screeched again.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" Sanji adjusted into what was probably a "battle ready!" position.

One more figure, a skinny wide-eyed guy jumped out of the shadows and threw something else, this time a knife. It hit Sanji in the leg. He shouted in pain.

Nami leapt into the police car. Sanji and Usopp followed. Usopp was in tears.

The car screeched off. The guy hollered after it, "YOU'RE ALL TREACHEROUS AND SHALLOW AND RUDE!" He turned to Ami and Yumi, who simultaneously flinched. "And you two! Your hair is SO brightly colored! WHAT'S UP WITH THAT!" He ran after them. They cried out in fear and ran into their van.

Dethklok had run away by now, leaving fancy weaponry behind.

The van left.

The Eds stood shaking when the homicidal maniac turned his attention to them. "GO AWAY! I hate kids!"

They obeyed.

Now he and Ryuzaki made eye contact.

Ryuzaki actually looked kind of pissed off. "You again."

"Have you noticed how similar our hair is?"

"Another day," Ryuzaki left.

"Goodnight, then!"

Hinata collapsed onto her butt on the ground, exhausted just by the energy rushing around her and the emotion rushing through her.

"Hello."

"...Hello." If he was there to kill her, which she was sure he was, then dammit, he could have her. She was sick of running like the hunted animal she was. She wasn't even herself anymore. She had a sister, whom she cared about, and this sister was in danger too. She didn't like her parents. They didn't like her. She was Hinata Hyuuga; she had a few friends and a crush on some boy, and she was an okay cook, and could make elixirs, and she liked the color orange, and none of this mattered because the only thing that did matter was the number.

She would cry if she wasn't so thoroughly numb at the moment. Hanabi would be yelling at her over how annoying and angsty she was being. Ugh, this was depressing, why wouldn't this guy just kill her?

He crouched in front of her. He handed her a little post-it note with a drop of blood and an address on it. "Sorry about the blood. If you go there, you may actually get saved. It's a house. An underground railroad of sorts. Neato, huh? You can probably make it out, but not by yourself. My name's Johnny C., by the way, you can call me Nny. I like your type better than the bounty hunter type we have so much of. I like the underdog to win. Anyway, just go there. I'd say hurry. There are some weird types around here, huh?"

"...Yes." She lifted herself up off her stiff, bent knees.

"I'm gonna go now. Here's a comic! It's called Happy Noodle Boy! I WROTE IT! Consider it a good luck charm!" He waved goodbye. "So yeah, good luck!" And in a blur of spiky black hair and somewhat goth clothing, he was gone as quickly as he appeared.

Hinata clutched the post-it in one hand and comic in the other. _Good luck_. She looked at the comic, then up and down the street, and then went off to the side and began a brisk walking pace. Because maybe, despite it all, he was onto something. (Not with the comic, though. What the hell was with that comic?)


End file.
